By Adrian D. Garcia
The Denver Post
(Joe Amon, Denver Post file photo)
The University of Colorado Boulder reported it is being investigated by the U.S. Department of Education Office of Civil Rights over its handling of an alleged sexual assault involving a student.
The university first became aware of the federal inquiry on June 21, CU Boulder spokesman Bronson Hilliard said. The CU-Boulder chancellor's office sent an internal memo to the student body, faculty and staff on Wednesday afternoon.
"You have to be very careful in announcing an investigation," Hilliard said. "You want to make sure you have all the details correct about what the precise focus of the investigation is."
The internal memo from Chancellor Philip P. DiStefano acknowledged the actions the Office of Civil Rights is undertaking but said it couldn't provide any details about the case.
DiStefano said that he has ordered an external review of the university's Title IX compliance efforts to make sure its procedures dealing with sexual misconduct meet guidelines. Since 1972, Title IX has regulated gender-based discrimination - including sexual assault and harassment -- in education settings.
Sarah Gilchriese, a 20-year-old communications major at CU Boulder, said in a phone interview she filed the complaint with the OCR because she was unhappy with the way the university handled her case.
Gilchriese said she was sexually assault by another student off-campus during the middle of February. She reported the assault to CU-Boulder's Office of Student Conduct around March 3.
The student conduct office undertook an investigation and suspended the alleged assailant from school for eight months, fined him $75 and assigned him to write a paper reflecting on the incident. The university took nearly a month, Gilchriese said, to have her assailant removed from the campus.
"He was going to be allowed back on campus when I'm still a student and that's wrong," Gilchriese said.
She said she hired a lawyer and went to court to get a protection order so he could not return.
"I want (CU) to amend their policies to protect the victims," Gilchriese said. "I didn't ask for this to happen to me."
Gilchriese said she filed a police report. The alleged assailant has not been charged with a crime.
The Post does not typically identify the victims of sexual crimes, but Gilchriese chose to be identified.
CU-Boulder is standing by its record of Title IX compliance, Hilliard said. He said the external review ordered by DiStefano is designed to make sure the university is in full compliance with Title IX.
In 2007, the university settled two claims filed under Title IX, paying female students who were sexually assaulted by football players and high-school recruits at a 2001 party a total of $2.8 million and agreeing to add staff to help CU prevent sexual harassment and misconduct.
Hilliard said the university enacted a series of reforms as a result of the settlement and since then has "basically been in rolling review to make sure we are in compliance with Title IX."
Adrian D. Garcia: 303-954-1729, agarcia@denverpost.com, Twitter/adriandgarcia
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